This website is a work in process….and it will frequently be updated with fresh and new content. So, I hope you will come back to it often to see what I have posted since your last visit.
In 2017, I retired from teaching as a community college professor in Florida. I am Mary Kelly, and I have bee a licensed real estate broker in the states of Florida and Georgia, a REALTOR®, and the owner of Kelly Property Expert, Inc. Currently, I am in the process of changing the way I sell real estate. I closed Kelly Property Expert, Inc. on December 31, 2022.
I have closed Kelly Property Expert, Inc., my own company where I have worked from 2017-2022.
I am now working as a real estate sales & research consultant and working under a different company structure. I am still a REALTOR and licensed real estate broker, but I am working under the name of Mary Kelly MBA, a new company I have just formed…..I am still going to hold a license in both the states of Florida and Georgia, but my focus is going to be selling homes only in the southeast Georgia area. All of this became legal last week.
My new website is https://marykelly.co. You may have gotten here from https://kellypropertyexpert.com because that domain name gets you to the same website.
I am posting my phone number in the picture below, but please know that my calls are screened to weed out spam callers. I welcome all serious, legitimate callers that I can verify who leave messages.
Contingencies are provisions that must be met for the home sale transaction to go through, or the buyer is entitled to walk away from the deal with their earnest money. Both buyers and seller should understand how contingencies work. Here are five of the most common contingencies: Home inspection, appraisal, financing, sale of current home, & title. See pdf file embedded below, which can be printed. (Published by Georgia REALTORS.)
“The report notes one of the big historical problems in Florida: In 2021, Florida had 6.91% of all U.S. insurance claims in the U.S. – but three out of four property insurance lawsuits (76%) were in Florida (from Fla. Releases County-by-County Property Ins. Report, Florida REALTORS® website at https://www.floridarealtors.org/news-media/news-articles/2023/01/fla-releases-county-county-property-ins-report?utm_campaign=1-12-23+Florida+Realtors+News&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email).”
The combination of lawsuits, hurricanes, and the rising prices of homes over the past couple of years is a perfect storm for higher property insurance rates in Florida. That is what happened back in 2005-2006 as Florida was plagued with hurricanes and rising home prices, and both the hurricanes and rising prices of 2022 make for a much worse financial burden on Florida insurance companies now.
Insurance companies are not in business to lose money; they are in business to make a profit. So they must pass on the cost of doing business to the consumer – or to the government for bail outs which will actually in the long run be a cost to the consumer in the form of higher taxes. I could be wrong, but historically, that is what happens…..
Florida’s real estate market is certainly a state to watch in 2023-2024!
I compiled this report from information taken taken from qpublic.net, which is where Ware County Property Appraiser posts all of Ware County, Georgia, property sales information for public viewing. The file embedded below (which you can download) shows only the homes on land properties that were sold in Ware County in 2022. It does not include sales of land only and commercial property.
If you would like more information on any property sales in Ware County, Georgia, or the surrounding areas in Georgia, just ask. I can be reached via the Contact page on this website.
Mary Kelly, MBA Licensed Real Estate Broker (Florida & Georgia) Real Estate Sales & Research Consultant KELLY PROPERTY EXPERT, INC.
See the video: Foreclosure WAVE in Florida Getting BAD
I have been saying over the past year (in 2022) that I was feeling like I was back in 2005 selling real estate. Back then, prices were going up by the week in Florida, and there were more buyers than there were properties on the market for sale.
COVID is still alive and well! And unfortunately, too many people are still not seriously taking precautions in this pandemic which has NEVER gone away.
We are one world today! No country can live as an island, and I do not believe the day will come that any one country will survive without other countries. COVID is surging in China, and it is said that nearly 5,000 people are dying every day there right now. The emergency rooms are filled. This is going to hurt our economy in the U.S. and in other nations. And no one should fool themselves and think COVID cases are not going to rise here in the U.S. and in other nations. More people will be dying of COVID!
Everyone around the world needs to take more precautions…. I am saying this knowing that some countries may not be able to take more precautions because vaccines, protective equipment, and even food and medicine are not easily available….But in the United States of America, there are no valid excuses for people here not taking precautions!
Dr. Roger Seheult, MD of MedCram, can explain this better to you than I can. In this video, he examines the BF.7 COVID surge in China.
See all Dr. Seheult’s videos at: https://www.medcram.com (This video was recorded on December 27, 2022) Roger Seheult, MD is the co-founder and lead professor at https://www.medcram.com He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine.
What Does the U.S. 2023 Appropriations Bill Do for RE?
By Kerry Smith
The $1.7T spending bill that funds the federal government through Sept. covers a number of RE priorities, such as buyer assistance, fair housing and flood insurance.
Fake Sellers, Fake Landlords: What’s Real Anymore?
By Meredith Caruso
“The advice for anyone you meet in real estate? Trust but verify – which means don’t fully trust anyone who isn’t your mother. Scammers continually find new ways to separate you, your buyer or your seller from their money.”
If you are thinking of selling your home, you really need to read this article…. and think about it before you decide you decide to put yourself out there to go it alone without the help of a REALTOR®.
I am a full-service REALTOR®, but I also provide consulting services to sellers who want to sell BUY OWNER and to buyers who are interested in buying a home listed for sale BUY OWNER. Call me at 912.387.9922, and please leave a message if your call goes into my message center for screening (out spam) so I can return your call.
Mary Kelly, MBA – Licensed in Florida & Georgia Real Estate Sales & Research/Writing Consultant KELLY PROPERTY EXPERT, INC. Waycross, Georgia
Review: Edward Jones ProtectFinancial accounts from “cyberthieves” {Jones, E. (2022, December 28). Protect financial accounts from “cyberthieves”. Waycross Journal-Herald, pp. 5–5. Reported by John Pfaff in Financial Focus. John Plaff, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones, 608 Jane St., Waycross, Georgia, 912.285.0009.}
What a timely article! “Cybercrime is booming.” And this article addresses that fact and gives some very concrete, wise suggestions on what you can do to protect yourself from being a victim of “cybercrime” (or scams, which is what this type of this criminal activity is usually called).
It is pointed out in this article that “in 2021, the FBI reported that cybercriminals scammed nearly $7 billion from Americans – a figure higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Switerzerland for that year, according to a research organization World Economics.”
Spams, scams, and hacks are on the rise. And if you are an older adult (and more so if you can be identified as being single or a widow/widower), you are a target!
So what are the predictions in the real estate market as we enter 2023?
Emerging trends are in part just the opinions of the authors. However, trends are determined by recent market activity and what history tells us that recent market activity leads to. The so called emerging trends are not the opinions of Mary Kelly of Kelly Property Expert. The posted resource below is the result of research done by Mary Kelly.
The commercial real estate market is not the same as the home sales market. In fact, when commercial properties are listed, the listings are not normally marketed in the same manner or on the same internet sites where homes are listed.
Links to resources are listed below that will take you away from the Kelly Property Expert, Inc., website. These links are provided as a resource to help guide you to sites that report specifically on the commercial real estate market.
The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) publish Commercial Real Estate Metro Market Reports periodically. Check out the most recent reports here (https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/commercial-real-estate-metro-market-reports).
The Commercial Market Insights Report provides in-depth analysis and market insights on the commercial real estate market. Generally, its focus on multi-family, office, industrial, and retail properties. It is published by the The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). Check out the most recent reports here.
Have you ever received a phone call and heard the caller say right up front, “Are you there?” I bet you have. And I bet you said “Yes.”
I heard of a new scam. The caller gets you to answer the phone, and the caller asks that question, “Are you there?” The scammer records your “Yes” and edits the recording to show that you said “Yes” to a question giving your permission to something that gives the scammer permission to take funds from one of your accounts.
The scammer, of course, will need to have your account numbers and some other info maybe, but that is easy enough for the scammer to get before he/she even calls you. The scammer doesn’t always attack your account(s) immediately. Sometimes, the scammer is patient and will wait and maybe hit you months later. So you can never let down your guard.
Sad to say…..but scams and hacks are on the rise….and your cell phone and the internet may make you vulnerable to attacks.
Activities that will relax and take your mind off of anything that might be causing you stress or just preventing you from relaxing will be activities that only you can determine. “Activities” to relax…..Really? Yes, activity is a stress buster….but whatever the activity is for you, it must be something you like to do for it to be relaxing…..No one can decide what that is but you….
I drive by Sweetwater Baptist Church frequently and love seeing the quotes on their sign. It changes from time to time. I haven’t determined if they have a schedule for the changes or if they just change the quotations as the seasons we are in change……I took these pictures on 12-19-2022.
The Christmas tree is located in Phoenix Park in downtown Waycross. In 2022, the annual Christmas tree lighting to begin the Christmas season in Waycross was held on December 5.
It is extremely important that you ask the right questions of lenders you are considering for a mortgage when you are going to purchase a home. Six of the questions you should ask are listed on the flyer embedded in this blog post. You should be able to download it and print or save it to your device for future reference.
In addition to the the six questions listed on the flyer, you need to ask if the loan officer will give you a pre-approval so you will know whether or not you qualify for a mortgage in the amount you will need to purchase a home.
